Russian cybercrime: means, motive and opportunity

The Russian hacker is an established trope of pop culture and news analysis alike and thus gets recycled ad nauseam, but it is based on fact, that they are disproportionately active in the world of cybercrime (and, indeed, cyberespionage). My latest Moscow News column, ‘Why are Russians excellent cybercriminals,’ briefly explores some of the reasons. In the future, I also want to look at the MVD’s Department K, its computer crime directorate, as well as the FSB’s Center for Information Security.

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Mark Galeotti

This blog’s author, Dr Mark Galeotti has been researching Russian history and security issues since the late 1980s.

Educated at Cambridge University and the LSE, he is now a senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague and coordinates its Centre for European Security. He is also the director of the consultancy firm Mayak Intelligence. Previously he has been Professor of Global Affairs at New York University, head of the History department at Keele University in the UK, an adviser at the British Foreign Office and a visiting professor at MGIMO (Moscow), Charles University (Prague) and Rutgers (Newark), as well as a visiting fellow with the ECFR.

His books include ‘Spetsnaz: Russia’s Special Forces’ (Osprey) and ‘The Vory: Russia’s super mafia’ (Yale University Press) and the edited collections ‘The Politics of Security in Modern Russia’ (Ashgate) and ‘Russian & Soviet Organized Crime’ (Ashgate) and he is a regular contributor to Jane’s Intelligence Review, Oxford Analytica and many other outlets. He is a contributing editor to Business New Europe.

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